Quick start, but quiet finish means loss for Elgin

The Elgin football team started out with a bang, but made less and less noise as the game wore on in a 47-25 season-opening loss at Plainfield Central on Friday night.

The Maroons struck first when third-year starting quarterback Tom Roth spotted junior Tim Newcombe streaking down the left sideline wide open and threw a perfect strike for a 50-yard touchdown on the fourth play of the game.

A tipped Roth pass was intercepted in the end zone, ending Elgin's second drive, but the Maroons got the ball right back on a Wildcats fumble at their own 13-yard line and scored 5 plays later on a Roth 1-yard sneak to take a 13-0 lead with 11:30 to play in the second quarter.

Then Plainfield Central imposed its will to run the ball and run it often behind right tackle Mike Ream (6-foot, 270 pounds) and right guard Steve Bosilovatz (6-5, 270). The Wildcats ran wild on the Elgin defense, rushing 59 times for 424 yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground. Three Wildcats topped 100 yards rushing: senior Matt Lancore (10-125), junior Brian Meeks (15-113) and senior Anthony Bjorklund (18-104). Meeks and Bjorklund each scored 3 touchdowns.

"They have some good sized kids, but again we have to battle that with quickness, play in the middle and lower the shoulders," said Elgin coach Dave Bierman, who made his debut as Maroons coach. "If you play high against a big person, it's not going to go in your favor. So we have to stress eyes lower and heads up."

Plainfield used back-to-back drives of 60 and 68 yards, respectively, to take a 14-13 lead with 5:17 left in the second quarter and was driving again when a Maroons playmaker made a big play.

Bjorklund tried to pound it in from the 4-line and was about to score when Elgin senior Jamal Cook stripped the ball in a pileup at the 1-yard line and raced 99 yards for a touchdown to give Elgin a 19-14 lead.

"I thought I was down so bad, but (the play) kept going," Bjorklund said.

"He stripped it from me and they never blew the whistle."

"He wasn't down," Cook said. "I saw him stood up with the ball, went for it and took it."

But the Maroons did find themselves down 21-19 at halftime after Plainfield Central drove the ball 68 yards in 12 plays in 2:30, a drive capped by a 9-yard Meeks run.

The Wildcats opened the second half with a 6-play, 75-yard march that culminated in a touchdown by Bjorklund, who carried an Elgin defender into the end zone. The Wildcats would score 2 more rushing touchdowns and score on a blocked punt to outpace the Maroons 26-6 in the third quarter.

Elgin's only points in the second half came on a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Cook, his second 99-yard score of the game.

But the Elgin offense stalled after the first quarter. Roth completed his first 5 passes for 109 yards and a touchdown, but he was held without a completion in his next 8 attempts and was intercepted twice. Bierman said the Maroons weren't all on the same page.

"Obviously, we started out pretty well," Bierman said, "but we had too many communication problems. That's counting me. It's my fault, trying to get things in and done."